WASHINGTON, June 10: The United States said on Thursday that evidence received from Dr A.Q. Khan showed that North Korea was making nuclear weapons.

The US State Department made this assertion while commenting on a statement by China's deputy foreign minister, Zhou Wenzhong, who said that the United States has yet to persuade Beijing on North Korea's nuclear programme.

"We know nothing about the uranium programme," said Mr Zhou said. "We don't know whether it exists. So far the US has not presented convincing evidence of this programme."

Disagreeing with Mr Zhou, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said: "The recent revelations by the Pakistani scientist A.Q. Khan provided additional information about North Korea's pursuit of nuclear weapons."

Mr Boucher said that the United States had shared the information it received form Pakistan with the Chinese officials as well, making it clear that "there is very conclusive information that North Korea has a covert uranium enrichment programme."

When a reporter suggested that the Chinese might also have received information from Pakistan suggesting otherwise, Mr Boucher said he was not in a position to say what the Chinese learned from the Pakistanis.

"What information they might have or that they might have attained, for example, from the Pakistanis about A.Q. Khan's activities, I don't know. I can't vouch for them and what information they have in front of them," he said.

"But I think we would say that for all of us this picture of North Korea's uranium enrichment programme has, in fact, become clearer over time, as opposed to anything else," he added.